High Buffer manager\Page reads/sec but zero Memory Pages/sec

  • I thought that when you have high values og the metric "sqlserver:buffer manager\page reads/sec" you also would have high "Memory: Pages/sec", but I do not. Can someone explain this to me?

    Regards Tom

  • From PAL analysis:

    SQLServer:Buffer Manager Page reads/sec

    Description: SQLServer_Buffer Manager Page Reads_sec

    Description: Number of physical database page reads issued per second. Number of physical database page reads issued. 80 to 90 per second is normal, anything that is above indicates indexing or memory constraint.

    Threshold:

    Yellow: Page Reads/sec > 90

    Next Steps: Attempt to tune the application so that fewer I/O operations are required. For example, perhaps I/O would be reduced if there were appropriate indexes or if the database design were denormalized. If the applications cannot be tuned, you will need to acquire disk devices with more capacity. Compare to the Memory: Pages/sec counter to see if there is paging while the SQL Server:Buffer Manager\Page reads/sec is high. Note: Before adjusting the fill factor, at a database level compare the SQL Server:Buffer Manager\Page reads/sec counter to the SQL Server:Buffer Manager\Page writes/sec counter, and use the fill factor option only if writes are a substantial fraction of reads (greater than 30 percent).

    Reference:

    SQL Server, Buffer Manager Object

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189628.aspx

  • Thanks for the reply, but I still don't get this. If "buffer manager: page reads/sec" is at 50, should not "Memory pages/sec" at least be 50 also. They are both measuring page IO from disk, but "buffer manager" are just measuring what SQL Server are doing.

  • No, they're not both measuring pages read from disk. They're measuring completely different things

    Memory\\Pages/sec is the rate at which pages are read from or written to disk to resolve hard page faults. This counter is a primary indicator of the kinds of faults that cause system-wide delays. It is the sum of Memory\\Pages Input/sec and Memory\\Pages Output/sec. It is counted in numbers of pages, so it can be compared to other counts of pages, such as Memory\\Page Faults/sec, without conversion. It includes pages retrieved to satisfy faults in the file system cache (usually requested by applications) non-cached mapped memory files.

    A hard page fault occurs when a request is made for a virtual memory page that isn't in physical memory, i.e. a page that has been swapped out into the page file.

    The SQL buffer manager's pages/sec is measuring pages read from disk into the buffer pool, fetched because the query processor wants to read/write the page, no page faults occur during that process because pages that aren't in the buffer pool are on disk, they're not mapped into virtual memory.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

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